Thursday, July 31, 2014

Today I want to share Noah's new reading nook. If it's one thing that I don't mind having a lot of, it's books for Noah. I personally think we have enough toys for him right now, but I will never say no to a new book. They make the best gift, in my opinion. In our apartment, I felt like I didn't have a good system to store all the books. I put them in a basket but that got messy quickly. I then had them scattered around on different shelves, but that was a pain when cleaning up at the end of the night. So when deciding how to set up our living room and where to put all of Noah's things, I knew I wanted a little reading corner where all his books would live. I envisioned him having some quiet time all by himself, flipping through his favorite books. We already had the white Expedit, but in the apartment it served as extra storage in his closet. Since this house has built in closet systems, I needed to find a new use for it.

Thankfully, it fit perfectly in this little corner and is just the right amount of storage for his books. I love that it's the perfect height for Noah, and that his little friends (Socks, Super Buddy, and the fox without a name) and a few toys fit perfectly on top. Sidenote: The story behind Super Buddy is a cute one. When I was in college the Hefflelump movie came out. Since I've been a huge fan of elephants and purple, my roommate got me a little stuffed animal of it. Not too much came of it other than it sitting in my room. After Chris and I got married, we were planning a trip to California. I saw that some people bring along some sort of stuffed animal/figurine and take pictures with it while on vacation. We were searching for something when Chris found said purple elephant. He named him Buddy and he started coming on trips with us. Chris then found the Super Hero version of Buddy on Amazon and had to buy him. We decided to name him Super Buddy and give him to Noah.

I already had the frame (many of these were used in Noah's nursery) and I bought the print off Etsy. I love having this literary quote up on the wall!

Noah loves his little corner. I've found that now that his books are all visible and easy to take out, that he doesn't make a mess of the books so much. He goes and actually takes only a few out at a time. I still have to put them back at the end of the day, but before he would have fun just dumping the books and not even read them. At least now they are being read :)

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

On Monday, we hosted a play date for the 2012 babies from the MOMS Club from our previous town. We had it at our house and it was the first time that many of my mommy friends had seen the new house. We had a pretty good turn out... 4 moms and 5 kids (all boys!) came to play :)

I put out some fruit, cheese & crackers, and some other snacks to munch on while the kids played. I brought the shopping cart, pirate ship, and second vacuum cleaner up from the basement. All three of those toys were a huge hit! It was a little cloudy when people arrived, and the deck was kind of wet from the storm the night before. When the sun came out I offered to set up the water table for the kids to play in, but they all seemed happy to stay inside and play with the toys. It gave us moms a chance to eat and chat. Of course, right at the very beginning, Noah was distracted by all the visitors, and he fell going down the one step into the living room. It was like I saw him do it in slow motion, face first onto the wood floor, but couldn't do anything to stop it! He cried and had a huge red bump on his forehead, but he recovered quickly.

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

For Christmas, I gave Chris "A Year of Dates". On Christmas, he opened a stack of envelopes, one for each month of 2014. Inside the envelopes are pre-planned (and some pre-paid) dates for us to enjoy each month. At the beginning of each month, we open the envelope and schedule a day to go on the date. I will be recapping our dates each month.

This month, I had a date with both my boys! I know that these dates were designed so that Chris and I would get out on our own, but this month Chris suggested that we bring Noah with us. And since this was Chris' Christmas gift, I was happy to oblige ;) Since we were bringing Noah mini golfing with us, we decided to go in the morning, when we figured it wouldn't be too busy (or too hot yet). Originally we planned to go at 9am, right when they open. But when we woke up, it was drizzling a little bit. Instead, we decided to run our errands first and then see if the weather improved.

So we started our morning out with a breakfast smoothie, a trip to Target and Costco, and then a quick lunch at McDonalds. So instead of getting ice cream after mini golfing, we got it before when we were at McDonalds. You can't beat a 49 cent ice cream cone!!!

Then it was time to golf! Noah was technically free and he even got his own ball and putter. He picked the red ball, though he really didn't like hitting it. He preferred to hold it and instead hit our balls ;) I have to say that Noah was really good! He even sunk a few putts (with our help of course) and was really happy the entire time. We only golfed 9 holes, but that was just because it was getting hot and we left his hat at home (bad parenting 101). We decided to be total kleptos and stole Noah's red ball as a souvenir ;)

^^^ on our way home... Noah is tired but still holding onto that red ball!

Monday, July 28, 2014

Before recapping the weekend, I just wanted to give a sweet shout out to my friend Marlaina, who had her baby girl on Thursday evening! AnnaLynne Mary was born on July 24th at 5:48 pm and they came home on Saturday. I am so excited for my friend and this new chapter in her life. I was so happy to finally meet this beautiful baby girl. On Sunday, I brought over a little outfit (shopping for girls is so much fun!) as well as a meal (always appreciated by a new mother!) and had a nice little visit.

This weekend was a lot of fun, but very busy. I felt like we were going non-stop! On Friday night, Chris got home earlier than usual. He had the great idea to walk to the playground before dinner.

On Saturday, Chris woke up early to do one final walk through of our apartment and to turn in our keys... our lease is officially up! We then headed over to Chris' parents' house for breakfast. Chris' mom made french toast with bacon and sausage. She also made Noah some eggs. The layout of their house makes it so Noah can run around in a circle from the kitchen, through the front hall and dining room, and back to the kitchen. He had fun chasing Nonna and Granddad and then getting "scared" when they'd yell "boo" at him. It never got old to him!

After nap, we headed over to a MOMS Club Summer Party. The family who hosted it has a beautiful (and huge) house and backyard. Complete with a pool, tennis courts, and a life size dollhouse for the kids to play in (that had electricity!!!). We all signed up to bring different things (food, beverages, etc) and we also brought our own blankets and/or chairs. I learned that 90% of the moms had the same (just different colors) JJ Cole blanket that we have! At first I was worried that it wasn't as sunny out, but I think it was a blessing that it was somewhat overcast so we didn't get too hot!

^^^ They even had face painting!

On Sunday, we went on our July date... but I will share more about that tomorrow!